A police officer is assaulted every 20 minutes

Date published: 30/04/2007

A police officer is assaulted every 20 minutes, according to recently published research.

Some 126,860 officers, five out of six, have been subjected to an assault in the last five years.

The figures reveal there were 25,368 assaults on police officers across the country in 2006, a rise on 2002 when there were 24,559.

The report says this translates into 70 assaults a day or one every 20 minutes.

In 2005-06, 1,046 Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers were assaulted.

Andrew Marston, assistant chief officer for the force, said: "It is totally unacceptable that our officers are assaulted."

The statistics were released in response to Freedom of Information requests from Conservative MP Grant Shapps.

Jan Berry, chairman of the Police Federation, described the results as shocking.